


If's/And's/But's

by daintylemonsquare



Category: Dalton Academy Series
Genre: And there is a chase scene, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bridget's Gays in Space, M/M, Rescue Missions, there is a fight scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28386162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daintylemonsquare/pseuds/daintylemonsquare
Summary: Clark Sawyer was caught and he mourns the end of his life until someone came to save him.
Relationships: Julian Larson-Armstrong/Clark Sawyer
Kudos: 4





	If's/And's/But's

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank Bridget, once again, for creating the Gays in Space AU.

Clark was sure he was going to die. There were no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. The only reason he was calm was knowing that he was able to let his crew escape. Haven’s crew would be fine even though the ship was no more. They would mourn. He hated that the last memory he had of them was of Sinny pounding his fists against the escape pod’s window as he cried, of Mikey trying to pull him back, face buried into his shoulder so he wouldn’t have to watch Clark walk back to the cockpit, of Raven walking away with his knuckles against his eyes, and of Corey’s grave, knowing look as he jettisoned them while holding Sanctuary—the protective fail-safe Julian had given him once upon a time.

There was no way he was going to let them die. He made the miscalculation. His hubris had them biting more than they could chew. All for the love of one shapeshifter from Calixe, who he met in similar circumstances. They loved him too, but they didn’t all have to die at once. Clark didn’t want the Menagerie to feel the satisfaction.

Clark distracted their pursuers well and long enough that he could taste the disappointment in the air when they boarded the ship only to find that they were dragged around by one man. He expected to die right then and there. Naturally, they had more plans for him. Julian, and other Chromopillae like him, was a prize and Clark, along with his crew, were the only ones who had any idea where they were. At least, where the ones they liberated were. Chromopillae were under strict protection in Calixe. They had to be either kidnapped elsewhere or their collectors had to undergo the tedium of smuggling them out of their homes. The Menagerie operated in both circles but the kidnapping with a breath easier.

He’d heard of the mind taps. No one survived those. The body may be left breathing and mobile but there was nothing left inside to even consider it alive. Clark tried not to think what that would feel like. It was death. The next time they opened his cell doors, he would be a few minutes away from the end. He couldn’t even try to kill himself or go down swinging. His hands and feet were bound by one of the most intricate locks he’d ever seen. Corey would’ve been able to figure it out.

He wiped his blubbering face with his shoulder and tried to compose himself, which was difficult when he thought of his best friends mourning him. If he was going down, he was going down with as much pride as he had left in him.

The door opened. His blood went cold and every organ froze for a breath with the knowledge of how this was going to end. After his heart skipped two beats, the blood pumping through him felt stale. He wished they just shot him out of the stars. The droids walked in before the guards, who were chatting amiably as if this were any other day. One droid hauled Clark up by a magnet attached to the end of one of its limbs. It lifted him high enough that his feet dangled two inches from the floor. The other droid’s arm shifted into a glowing gun on the off-chance Clark had another trick up his sleeve.

He didn’t. He lifted his chin and forced a smile. “Morning, guards.”

“Prisoner ready for transport,” the droid carrying him intoned. “Awaiting—awaiting—in—inst—in—awaiting—”

“Ah fuck,” the guard on the left with the five arms said. “Told Jagkyf not to upgrade the models until we’re back on Prime.”

“Should we postpone? I don’t want to deal with a malfunction right now,” the guard on the right, who looked human with long violet hair, said. “Especially when we’ve got this wild card to transport. You know how anal the big guys are about paperwork.”

“Where would I even go?” Clark replied, as if this were any other day. He didn’t want to prolong his emotional suffering. He’d spent the last six days of waiting for them to acquire a Tapper and an expert to use it thinking about his death and preparing for it and mourning his life that he’d rather not postpone the inevitable because of the incompetence of somebody named Jagkyf.

“Silence,” the other droid said as its gun began to whine with activity.

“Don’t worry,” the guard on the left said. “These things always have a reset. Shouldn’t take longer than two minutes. Radio in that there will be a slight delay due to the new upgrades. Close the door and stand by it. This guy’s slippery.”

“Thank you,” Clark said.

The guard grunted and their eyes flashed at him. They began tinkering with a panel that unlocked itself with a key that morphed into several different shapes before settling into one. The other closed the door with a code tapped along the seam and it bolted itself shut after a hiss. At the same time, the other guard called their delay in. Clark began to whistle. The droid warned him again but the guard commanded it to stand down, which it did. His whistling got cut short when the droid holding him aloft initiated its reset. He fell to the floor with a bruising thud. He groaned, rolling over. The guard chuckled.

“That’s it. Two minutes,” the guard with the limbs said.

“Cool.” The humanoid guard approached. “Hey, Warner.”

“Yeah?”

“When we land, you think we could…you know…”

The guard, Warner, crossed all of their limbs over their torso. “Hmm…you want it again, huh?”

“Can you two not do this in front of me?” Clark sighed into the floor.

“Jealous?” The humanoid asked and Clark didn’t deign to respond. “Anyway, what do you say? Initiate temporary shutdown for maintenance B2J-HV52?”

“Initiating temporary shutdown,” the droid with the gun said.

“What—” Warner wasn’t able to finish their response or even move to get their weapon at the ready. A pale amber antenna shot out of the other guard’s forehead and connected with Warner’s. Their eyes flashed, amber again. Warner stared until the other guard took the key from their seized fingers. When Warner dropped, the other guard’s skin turned a light shade of brown and the hair shrank back into their scalp, waves forming before it turned brown.

“Julian?” Clark was too astonished to properly comprehend what just happened.

“Shut up,” Julian muttered as he unlocked the first droid’s panel with a hand that was similar to Warner’s, and it knelt down to the floor beside Clark, limbs tucked into its body.

“Julian,” Clark began crying. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be afraid to happy to see him. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving your fucking life.” Julian sniffled as he unlocked Clark’s restraints. Clark opened his mouth again to protest this somehow but Julian glared at him. “If you spew some martyr shit right now, I will punch you.” Clark closed his mouth.

Julian stood and helped Clark stand with a grunt. They stared at each other for a moment then Julian slapped him. He could feel it all the way down to the nails of his toes and the tips of his head of hair and it was the best feeling he had ever experience in the last few days. “Fuck you, Sawyer. I told you not to do anything stupid.” Before Clark could respond, Julian leapt to into his arms and kissed him. Tears streamed down both of their faces and into their lips. Julian’s tongue tangled with Clark and he could taste Julian’s anguish. He could feel it in where their teeth met and in how tightly he squeezed Julian’s waist.

“Don’t do that again. Don’t you ever do that again.” Julian muttered into Clark’s mouth. Then after one last kiss, he pulled away, wiping his face with one hand and holding Clark’s hand in the other. “Pick up the gun.” Clark obeyed. “I’ve given us five minutes before they check on this cell and this hallway. The AI in charge of the security cameras caught a bug this morning so they’re going analog as they try not to let the virus spread too far through the system. Their communications should be sabotaged—” Julian glanced at a watch that rose out of his amber skin. “Now.”

“How long have you been on this ship?”

“Two days,” Julian answered when they reached the door.

“Two days?!”

“Enough time to absorb enough information and impersonate a few people. Save the lecture for when we’re off this fucking ship.” Julian’s hand morphed into the original guard he was shifted as. The door opened without a problem.

“Shouldn’t I still be in cuffs? Shouldn’t you retain that form before?” Clark asked.

Julian shook his head and prepared his own gun. “No. We’re running out of here. No more questions. We’re burning time.” Julian lifted Clark’s hand to his lips. “For luck.” Clark leaned in for one last kiss that felt like two shots of adrenaline straight to an artery.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And they ran out of there, hand in hand.

Julian knew the ship like he knew Clark’s body. They moved with ease through the halls and through doors that weren’t meant for them. Even when the alarm was sounded and drones began sweeping the place alongside a few more guards, Julian managed to evade them. Clark was too discombobulated from being stuck in one room for almost a week that he forgot that Julian could access memories from the beings he shifted into. The longer he stayed connected, the more dangerous it was for the other, but Clark figured that Julian didn’t care about that aspect on this ship.

It wasn’t until they reached the hanger that they met friction. A blockade of Menagerie guards waited for them at the entrance. They were almost caught by another group came marching by for a status report but Julian had pressed them both against the wall and morphed into a blanket over Clark. While he could see from the inside, he was sure Julian had them both camouflaged. Julian reverted to humanoid shape and leaned on the wall.

Clark squeezed his hand. “You okay?” He asked, knowing taking inorganic forms or beastly forms took more out of him than the usual shift.

Julian nodded. His fingers slipped from Clark’s for the first time since they left the cell. “Wait for my signal here. You’ll know it.” Then he went to a nearby vent, yanked it open, and melted into it.

Clark wondered what kind of signal it was going to be as he clutched his gun. It whirred, ready to fire. There was some more marching from the other hallway. Some muted conversation. Then a chittering roar followed by a barrage of gunfire and screaming into radios. Clark rounded the corner.

Standing over the guards, some fallen, some scrambling away, some blasting, and some beating with glowing melee weapons, was a two-headed reptilian creature standing in four legs the size of the cargo hallway with erect amber spines covering two necks. Those spines shot out of it, piercing retreating guards and then pinning the braver ones to the floor. The clubbed tail swung with perfect synergy as the tongues that whipped corrosive saliva into the guards’ exposed skin. Clark ran towards it, shooting anyone in Julian’s blindside. He looked behind him and saw another troop coming their way. He picked up a bigger gun from a fallen guard and picked a few out before they took cover. With a delicate flick of the claw on a lever, the door rose up a couple of feet. Clark rolled under and past it. With a less than delicate swing of the tail, the panel sparked and the door stopped rising. Julian, rolling mid-shift, landed beside Clark, coughing.

Clark dragged him away line of sight then touched his face and checked for injuries. Julian swatted his hands away. “Get off of me. We don’t have much time.”

“Until what?” The cacophony of urgent voices came closer and closer as a few drones flew out of the walls. Clark turned and shot all of them down in three breaths.

“Now,” Julian said. Clark turned around and saw him a communication device sink into amber. His eyes flashed. He grabbed Clark’s hand. “Brace yourself.” Julian’s gaze moved from Clark’s to something over his shoulder. Clark followed it and saw a lithe body flip out of a vent. He didn’t recognize the mop of curly hair and the green face shield and the mechanical arm. He saluted at their direction then threw a blinking device at the field that kept the hangar protected from space while providing an easy exit for the ships that didn’t involve a constant opening and closing. The person zoomed away on a jetpack. The device burst across the shield, shattering part of it. Another alarm screeched as the air was being sucked out of the ship. A few guards slipped into the hangar but the vacuum wasn’t strong enough to fling them into space. Not yet.

“Go!” Julian heaved himself up, stumbling forward with Clark. Clark dropped the gun and ran. He wasn’t sure why they were running to the gaping hole towards the nothingness of space but he trusted Julian’s plan. He looked back and saw a few guards aiming and began pushing and pulling Julian into a serpentine route.

“Keep going toward the edge. I’ll keep my eyes on the back.” Julian’s eyes closed until it was a smooth expanse of skin. “Jump!” Clark obeyed, hand still laced tight around Julian’s. Two blasts grazed the bottom of his boots. “Left!” Clark veered left, feeling the heat of a laser rushing past his arm.

“Drones incoming,” Clark huffed as they bobbed and weaved. “They’re bigger.”

“They’re coming from behind too,” Julian said.

Just as Clark was about to make an executive decision and find cover, the same masked figure came down, guns blazing, taking out the drones behind them by making a select few crash into one another. Clark swore he heard a laugh. Then in front of them, a ship shimmered into view with a familiar face at the cockpit. Clark could recognize the way Charlie Amos tilted his hat in greeting anywhere in the universe

“Is that…the Wonderland?” Clark asked.

“It was the only ship crazy enough to help me and Haven,” Julian said. “Hit the deck.” And they dropped prone as a few circular beams rushed over their heads, slicing through a few ships in the hangar like they were wet paper. The Wonderland maneuvered out of its way. Clark looked back and saw a few mechs trudging closer with a few droids at their feet.

Julian scrambled to his feet and so did Clark. As they dodged a few more blasts and explosions raining on them, the flying man who did away with the drones, handled the drones that were still coming in. Though his legs ached and burned and threatened to go on strike at any moment, seeing the reinforcements was enough for Clark to power through it. The Wonderland shot at the mechs, the shields of which were beginning to fail. Then, after a narrow dodge from a droid’s laser, as if on cue, the bottom of the Wonderland opened and a few men dropped into view and shot at the droids, taking them down one by one. He recognized his crew and the Wonderland’s crew. He was surprised to see the pianist from the Stuart Saloon, standing at the forefront without a shred of hesitation, shots flying off of him before Clark could blink.

“Let’s fucking go!” Raven shouted over the barrage of blasts coming off of their guns.

Another man jumped out with a shield. Someone he didn’t recognize. One of Charlie’s men, part of the original crew if Clark’s memory served, almost broke ranks. “Kurt! Babe, wait!”

“Stay where you are, Wesley,” the other man, Kurt, ran towards him and Julian. “Fall right! Not left,” he yelled interrupting whatever Julian was going to say. Clark could only catch a brief moment of Kurt’s eyes swirling into purple and black when Julian shoved him to the right.

They fell on top of one another. Then Kurt jumped to the space by their legs just in time for a drone to shoot at them. The shield deflected the blow and the man in the jetpack shot it out of the sky. Kurt turned to them. “You two alright?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Julian pushed himself up and dragged Clark with him.

“Go with your gut. You’re almost through,” Kurt said.

Julian nodded. They ran straight for the underside of the Wonderland. Clark’s eyes watered when he met the gazes of his crew. He could see a tear slip out of Mikey’s as he ran up the ramp with Julian. He caught his breath. Julian fell to the side, form wobbling a little bit as he took in long, ragged breaths. His friend, Derek, knelt beside him. Clark knelt on the other side.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Clark asked. “Is he hurt?” He turned to Derek.

“I’m just tired, you idiot.” Julian muttered. Clark exhaled, relieved, and leaned his forehead against Julian.

“Here, have some water. You look like you need it,” Derek said, handing Clark a cool canister with a straw sticking out of the top.

“Thanks.”

Before long, the ship was lurching backwards and their gunmen ran up the ramp and into safety. The last ones to enter was Logan and Kurt. Kurt was pulled into Wes’s embrace as soon as he was safe and Logan stood beside Derek without a word. He nodded at Clark, who was holding the canister of water to Julian’s mouth. Clark nodded back.

“All in?” Charlie asked over comms.

“Aye, aye, captain,” the AI announced.

“Yeehaw. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said. “Welcome back, Sawyer.” Then the ship rattled and jolted forward into emergency lightspeed.

Clark stood up and hugged the nearest Haven crewmember he could reach. It was Raven, his captain. Raven buried his face into Clark’s chest and shook as Clark shook. “You insubordinate fuck.” His yell was muffled by Clark’s body. “I’m the captain. I go down with the ship. Not you.”

More and more insults born from grief were flung around the same time as their arms got flung around Clark. They all stood together in that embrace, complete. All five of them were left in their own world of sobbing. Clark was vaguely aware of everyone stepping away to give them space. Everyone, except, Julian, Logan, and Derek, who were still in the same corner that Clark left Julian.

“You’re lucky that your boyfriend is more obstinate about your fate than we were,” Corey said. “You’re lucky, in general.”

Clark laughed, wiping his face with his shoulder. “I know. I know…How much do we owe the Wonderland?”

“A lot,” Mikey mumbled into his shoulder. “A lot a lot.”

“But you’re worth it,” Sinny said, squeezing them together. “We’ll yell at you later. This is nice.”

“Room for one more?” Julian asked.

“Always,” Corey opened up and so did Raven.

Julian slipped into the middle of the embrace and kissed Clark’s cheek before tucking his head under Clark’s chin. The last six days of tension sublimated off of Clark’s shoulders. He settled into the arms of his partners-in-crime and the chromopillae he loved with every nerve in his body, knowing that even though their entire operation had gone sideways (the Haven was gone, their clandestine vendetta against the Menagerie was exposed), that this was nothing more than a setback at worse and another beginning at best.

**Author's Note:**

> Song I listened to on repeat while writing this:  
> Love Ballad by Tove Lo


End file.
